Heinz Leymann

Heinz Leymann (Wolfenbüttel, Germany, July 17, 1932-Stockholm, 1999) was a doctor in pedagogical psychology and also obtained a doctorate in the medical science of psychiatry. He became a Swedish citizen in 1955. He lived in Sweden for many years.

In the 1960s, a Swedish doctor detected a special type of hostile behavior at school that continued for a long period; this behavior was called mobbing.

In the early 1980s Professor Leymann found the same type of long-term hostile behavior in employees and in their workplaces. Since then Heinz Leymann is the most recognized international expert in the field of mobbing in the workplace.

He worked as a clinical psychologist and was a professor of labor sciences at Umeå University. He treated nearly 1,300 patients, a significant number of them were hospitalized in a clinic that applied special programs with the treatment developed by Professor Heinz Leymann.

He is considered the first researcher and pioneer in the dissemination of psychological harassment or Mobbing in Europe. Other European pioneers in this field are the French psychiatrist Marie France Hirigoyen and the Spanish psychologist Iñaki Piñuel y Zabala.

Works

• LEYMANN, H.; Mobbing: the persécution au travail. Seuil. Paris 1996.
• LEYMANN, H.; The content and development of mobbing at work. Rev. European J. of Work and Organitzational Psichology 2. 1996.
• LEYMANN, H. GUSTAFSON, A.; Mobbing at work and the development of post-traumatic stress disorders. Rev. European J. of Work and Organitzational Psichology 2. 1996.